Proud schools hail champs

Luster continues for Little Leaguers

Daniel Porras (in light cap) faced a crush of people as he returned to Hilltop Middle School in Chula Vista yesterday as a member of the Little League World Champion Park View All-Stars. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune)

Daniel Porras (in light cap) faced a crush of people as he returned to Hilltop Middle School in Chula Vista yesterday as a member of the Little League World Champion Park View All-Stars. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune)

Cost:
The rally is free. The city is seeking donations to pay for the estimated $35,000 cost and has raised $25,000. To donate: call (619) 691-5044 or mail a check to Office of the Mayor, 276 Fourth Ave., Chula Vista CA 91910. Make check payable to City of Chula Vista and in the memo write PVLL homecoming.

Chula Vista 
The first day back at school marked the latest chapter in the fairy tale summer of the Park View All-Stars, with limousine rides, screaming groupies, gifts and proclamations.

The dozen boys who won the Little League World Series on Sunday alternated between being swaggering celebrities and overwhelmed 12- and 13-year-olds as they began their re-immersion into the lives they lived before The Big Thing.

Daniel Porras faced it first. The Park View catcher showed up at Hilltop Middle School in a limousine. Police had to hold back a surge of admiring classmates, and school trustees converged on him for photos when he stepped out of the car.

“He's like a rock star for a couple of weeks,” said Charisa Gates, 13, an eighth-grader.

Another girl simply held up a sign with the words, “Will You Marry Me?”

Daniel smiled but looked dazed as he absorbed how his arrival electrified the entire school, and he declined to speak to the crowd when he was brought on the stage in the quad.

Nick Conlin, Seth Godfrey, Kiko Garcia and Bulla Graft were shepherded into the principal's office upon their arrival at Bonita Vista Middle School to protect them from swarming classmates.

As they waited backstage at a lunchtime rally in their honor, they boasted about who would make the grandest entrance. But after the screeching adulation, the proclamations, the school band's pounding tribute, the free Disneyland passes and the battery of cameras, they huddled alone in a corner of the choral room to recover their wits.

“We were scared of the paparazzi,” Bulla said in the half-joking half-serious tone characteristic of 12-year-olds thrust into sudden celebrity. The star treatment continues today with an appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Conan O'Brien.

When Andy Rios returned to St. Pius X School yesterday, he immediately reported for weekly Mass with his classmates.

After Mass, the principal summoned Andy to the office over the public address system, and added, “He's not in trouble.”

While he was in the principal's office, 290 students in kindergarten through eighth grade gathered on the playground for a rally.

Andy arrived with that now familiar braces-filled grin. But as the cheerleaders' routines and the pennant-waving continued, his smile tightened a bit. He only fully unleashed it again when his principal announced that he'd be having his favorite food, orange chicken, for lunch.

“I didn't think it would be that loud,” Andy said after the rally.

The six Park View team members at Rancho Del Rey Middle School started their first school day since Aug. 5 with a news conference in the band room.

“It feels great to get all this attention because we're world champions,” Isaiah Armenta said. “It's just amazing.”

They took turns with the microphone greeting their 1,600 schoolmates with “W'sup, Rancho?”

Camera flashes strobed the returning heroes. Eighth-grader Brent Gamos, 13, held up a sign for his friend Luke Ramirez with the message, “In Luke We Trust.”

“Kids we play with and know won the World Series and are known around the world,” Brent said, but added, “They're just normal kids like us.”

Normal kids who are a little shy about answering questions in front of the whole school.

Markus Melin gave it a shot, but bowed his head in blushing silence when a girl interrupted his remarks by screaming, “We love you!”

The Bonita Vista four stayed grounded by mercilessly ribbing one another. They competed to see who could sign 15 newspaper front pages the fastest. Kiko teased Bulla that he was thinking about a girl while playing on TV, drawing a defiant response of, “Not even!”

After the rally at St. Pius X, Andy returned to English class and handed out autographed photos of himself to fellow students. But teacher Kayte Russell brought him back to earth by instructing him to “go look in your cubby for your DOL (daily oral language work sheets).”

It was the first sign that life may eventually return to normal for these kids.